Complaint Review: Florida Bartending School Pinellas - Largo FL

BUYER BEWARE! But don’t just take my words for it, check out this consumer report regarding numerous complaints about the Largo school and others across the states of FL, GA and SC all owned by Chris Nelson:

https://www.abcbartending.com/consumer-beware-melbourne.php

If you like throwing your money away and wasting your time then this is the place to do it. Also note, all of the so called “good reviews” here are forced and fabricated by the school who withhold completion certificates until a student completes an online review! I can’t speak for all of the instructors, but mine was unprofessional and extremely rude. The first class was scheduled to begin at 6PM but the instructor did not start our class until approximately 6:38PM. Those 38 minutes she spent entirely on 4 students from a more senior class, as the students in my class sat in awkward silence essentially being ignored. When she did finally address our class, there was no introduction of any kind.....she literally just started reading to us from the book. Never demonstrated how to make drinks, just read from the book and then said, "ok, now get back here and practice making the drinks we just read about." She offered no hands-on teaching whatsoever, and spent most of her time between chapters sitting at the desk on her cell phone, occasionally yelling things out.

 I’m a military Vet and I signed up for this class hoping to learn and do something fun, possibly as a 2nd career to help me break into the hospitality industry. However, this is definitely not the place to do it.

The bar itself is a complete disaster......filthy dirty bar rags, water leaking all over the floor from the one broken sink (safety hazard), bar stools literally falling apart and missing legs because they are being used as drink muddlers, and not near enough bar equipment for people to share. More importantly there are fire code violations, and nothing about the facility is ADA compliant, which is in violation of Federal Law.

I'm not normally a person to complain unless something is seriously wrong, and I have seen first- hand that this school has many more problems in addition to the ones I've already listed. The school and class most definitely do not live up to what they are publicly promoting and advertising. In addition to this review, I have contacted to school directly only to receive a generic, auto-reply. I have an open, formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau in FL, and I will be posting and telling everyone I can what a scam this is.

So now the alleged owner is accusing me of making a false review....person can’t even form a grammatically correct sentence:

“Tracey is a competition related and is not a bonafide student.” What??? That’s Laughable; much like the business! This is a false review and has been reported. Tracey is a competition related and is not a bonafide student. Other reviews reflect our real students who successfully attended our program and were satisfied.”

Mine is not a false review as stated by the "owner."  I was a student who paid $295 on 30-Aug and I was extremely unhappy with the service/product I received, so I dropped out after 2 days and requested a refund due to all of the reasons I have listed, and then some. And rather than the business owner apologizing and trying to make it right he chooses to attack me?!?! Very professional! I assure anyone reading this that there are others who can substantiate my complaint which will now be pursued as a lawsuit. If you don’t believe me, go look at the place yourself; super classy.... oh wait I mean TRASHY!!

I happen to be a retired military officer and honorably served this country for more than 20 years; yet the owner has opted to attack my credibility and integrity, 2 things the owner (Chris Nelson) clearly doesn’t possess.